Sharp County record., 1887-05-19
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Growing Evil Of Immoral Lit
erature Depicted.
The Power of the Press for the Fostering
or Suppression of the Evil-The Moral
and Physical Effect of Bad Books
and Pictures.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage has joined the
crusade against immoral literature anu
on recent Sabbath delivered sermon
on the subject, taking for his text:
Many of them, also, which used curious arts
brought their books together, and Durneu tne'n
| before all men: and they counted the price OF
them. and found it fifty thousand pieces Oh
silver Acts, xix. 10.
Paul had been stirring up Ephesus Win
! some lively sermons about the slus Vi
that place. Among the most important
! results was the fact that the cltlzens
| brought out their bad books and in pup
! lie Mace made bonfire of them. see
I the people coming out with their arms
! full of Ephesian literature, and tossing |.
into the flames. hear an econoHlsU
standing by and saying:
! "Stop this waste. Here are S7,5OO wortn
of books-do you propose to burn tnem
4 all upl If you don't want to read them
Yourself sell them and let somebody else
( read them.n ,
"No,n said the people, "if these books
are not good for us they are not goou lor
ANYBODY else, and we shall stand ana
watch until the last leaf has turned 10
i ashes. They have done US world Oh
harm, and they shall never do others
! harm"
Hear the f1ames crackle and roar.
Well, my friends one OF the wants Oh
the cities of this country is a great oonnre
of bad books and newspapers. we nave
enough fuel to make blaze two hundred
/ feet high. Many of the publishing houses
would do well to throw into the blaze
their entire stock of goods. Bring forth
\ the insufferable trash and put it into the
l fire. and let it be known in the presence OF
! God. and angels, and men, that you are
going to rid your homes Of the overtop-
ping and underlying curse OF pronigaUe
j literature.
The printing press is the mlghtes'U
agency on earth for good and for evil
The minister of the Gospel, standing IN a
pulpit, has responsible position; ouU
/ do not think it is as responsible as the po-
sition of an editor or publisher. At what
! distant point of time, at what 1ar-ouI
cvcle of eternity, will cease the influence
of a Henry ]. Raymond, or Horace
Greeley, or James Gordon Bennett or
Watson Webb, or an Erastus Brooks, or a
Thomas Kinsella1 Take the simple
| statistic that our New YORK
dailies now have a circulation OF
about $4,000 per day, and add TO ~ 1Ie
fact that three of our weekly periodicals
have an aggregate circulation OF ABOUT
!. 600, ,OOO and then cipher, if you can, now
far nm and how far down, and how lar
out, reach the influences Of the American
printlng-press. . -
Great God! What is to be the issue OF
all thisi l believe the Lord intends the
nrinting press to be the chief means 1or
the worlds rescue and evangelizatlon,
and I think that the great last battle OF
the world will not be fought with SWORDS
and guns, but with types and presses-a
purified and gospel literature triumphlng
over. trampling down and crushing out
for ever that which is depraved. Inc
) ulrSEy tA1-vf-sesc~ nnc.eaf literature
is bv scattering abroad that which IS
healthful. May God speed the cylinders
of an honest, intelligent aggressive
| Christian printing press
have to tell you this morning that the
oreatest blessing that ever came to this
Nation is that of an elevated literature,
and the greatest scourge has been that OIL
unclean literature. This last has lts VIC
| Tins in all occupations and departments.
| If has helped to fill insane asylums and
| nenitentiaries and almshouses and dens OF
| shame. The bodies of this infection lie IN
the hospitals and in the graves, Whlle
their souls are being tossed over into a
| lost eternity, an avalanche OF horror ana
| despair. ~ :.
The London plague was nothing to IT,
| That counted it's victims by thousands,
but this modern pest has already shoveled
its millions into the charnel-house OF the
morally dead. The longest rail train that
ever ran over the Erie or Hudson tracks
| was not long enough nor large enough 10
| carry the beastliness and the putrelacCion1
which have been gathered up in pad
books and newspapers OF this land IN the
| last twenty years.
Now. it IS amid such circumstances tnat
| | put, this morning, a question OF over
mastering importance to you and your
| families. What books and newspapers
| shall we reads You see Igroup them TO-
| pether. A newspaper is only book IN
swjfter and more portable shape, and the
same rules which will apply to book read
| ing will apply to newspaper reading
| What shall we readl Shall our minds be
the receptacle for everything that an
author has mind to write! Shall there
be no distinction between the tree OF life
and the tree of death' Shall we stoop
down and drink out of the trough whlch
the wickedness of men has filled Win
nollution and shamel Shall we mire IN
| impuritv and chase fantastic wllEo-the-
wisps across the swamps, when we mlght
walk in the blooming gardens OF Godf "
no! For the sake of our present and ever
lasting welfare we must make an lntelll-
gent and Christian choice.
Standing, as we do, chin deep in ficti-
tious literature, the first question that
many of the young people are asking me
is: "Shall we read novelsp l reply:
There are novels that are pure, good,
| Christian, elevating to the heart and en-
nobling to the life. But have still fur-
ther to say that believe that ninety nine
ont of the hundred novels in this day are
baleful and destructive to the last degree.
pure work of fiction is history and poet
ry combined. 1t is history OF things
around us, with the licenses and the as
sumed names of poetry. The world can
never pay the debt which it owes to such
fictitious writers as Hawthorne and NC
Kenzie, and Landor and Hunt, and Arthur
and Marion Harland, and others whose
names are familiar to all. The follies OF
high life were never better exposed than
nv Miss Edgeworth. The memories of the